US Senate To Vote On Bill That Will Allow The Military To Arrest Americans On American Soi

author: Stephen D. Foster Jr.

November 26, 2011

Since Occupy Wall Street began, American police officers have arrested thousands of people for exercising their constitutionally protected right to protest. On Monday or Tuesday, the US Senate will vote on a bill that would give the President the ability to order the military to arrest and imprison American citizens anywhere in the world for an indefinite period of time.

A provision of S. 1867, or the National Defense Authorization Act bill, written by Senators John McCain and Carl Levin, declares American soil a battlefield and allows the President and all future Chief Executives to order the military to arrest and detain American citizens, innocent or not, without charge or trial. In other words, if this bill passes and the President signs it, OWS protesters or any American could end up arrested and indefinitely locked up by the military without the guaranteed right to due process or a speedy trial.
This bill was written in secret and approved by committee without a single hearing. Senate Republicans support the bill and enough Democrats support it to give it a great chance of passing. This provision does have opponents. President Obama has threatened to veto the bill and even Ron Paul is concerned enough to bring it up during one of the GOP debates. An amendment called the Udall Amendment has been offered by Democratic Senator Mark Udall that would delete the dangerous provision.

If you are an American citizen, protect your constitutional rights. Call your senator and tell them to approve of the Udall Amendment. No American citizen should be arrested by the military and held indefinitely without charge or trial. It's not conducive to American values and would give the military and the government more power over the American citizenry. The last time Americans had to deal with an overreaching military was during the Revolutionary era. Because of that, the Founders included the 3rd Amendment to ban the quartering of troops during times of war and peace. Once again, Americans are under threat of dealing with a military that has more power than it should have. And it could cost us most of the freedoms we tend to take for granted.

America is NOT a battlefield. America is a free country and American citizens should not ever be arrested by the military and certainly not without being charged or getting a trial. This provision would cast aside the Constitution and put the liberties of American citizens here at home and around the world at serious risk.

Unfortunately, the ACLU-mediated actions to generate grassroots activity in favor of Udall's amendments are based on patent falsehood, and thus will bring about the very thing the ACLU is claiming to it's working to prevent: domestic US military detention of US citizens.
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A large part of this controversy hinges on whether or not the current wordings of Sections 1031 & 1032 of "Subtitle D--Detainee Matters" in the current National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 (NDAA) would signal the start of a martial-law-like scenario here in the U.S.

A recent (Nov. 23, 2011) article on the ACLU's website by Chris Anders of the ACLU's Washington, DC legislative office is entitled, "Senators Demand the Military Lock Up American Citizens in a "Battlefield" They Define as Being Right Outside Your Window"(at link to www.aclu.org ).

In that article, Mr. Anders states that Sections 1031 & 1032 of the NDAA will result in Federal government powers so broad that "even U.S. citizens could be swept up by the military and the military.., even within the United States itself."

In that very same article, the solution, too, is given: Promote courageous Senator Udall's common-sense amendment to NDAA and stop this madness!

Hundreds of frantic consituents have recently done just that.

The reason for serious concern about the ACLU's actions regarding the NDAA is two-fold:

1) The actual wordings of Sections 1031 and 1032 of the NDAA explicitly EXEMPTS U.S. citizens from coverage by those sections.

2) However, the essence of Udall's Amendment SA 1107, which is touted as the cure to the Executive branch's power grab, actually states (**emphasis added**):
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(c) Congressional Action.-Each of the appropriate committees of Congress may, not later than 45 days after receipt of the report required by subsection (a), hold a hearing on the report, and shall, within 45 days of such hearings, report to Congress legislation, if such committee determines legislation is appropriate and advisable, **modifying or expanding the authority of the Executive Branch to carry out detention and prosecution of covered persons.**
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And in Udall's Amendment SA 1112 to the same NDAA bill (**emphasis added**):
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At the end of section 1031, add the following:
(f) Extension to United States Citizens and Lawful Resident Aliens.--**The authority of the Armed Forces of the United States to detain covered persons under this section extends to citizens of the United States** and lawful resident aliens of the United States, except to the extent prohibited by the Constitution of the United States.
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Yes, this is bizarre. Yes, this is confusing. Yes, this is a power grab.

Please do the right thing: quickly verify this information yourself, then call/webmail/email your Senators NOW to "REJECT UDALL'S AMENDMENTS (SA 1107 & SA 1112) TO THE NDAA!"
Why now? Because the Senate will likely vote on the NDAA bill--and these Trojan Horse amendments--Tuesday 11/29/2011.
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For more info, these two articles shed much needed light on the recent, weird activities of the ACLU and National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 (NDAA). Sorry for the seemingly excess details, but as they say, "The Devil's in the details...".

Article 2:
"Udall Amendment SA 1112 [to S. 1867] To INCLUDE U.S. Citizens and Lawful Resident Aliens in Military Detentions"
Posted on November 27, 2011
(at link to willyloman.wordpress.com )

To see Udall's amendments directly, go to the Congressional legislation website at http://thomas.loc.gov/ , enter bill # S.1867. When it appears, scroll down to "Amendments" and click on that word. When they appear, scroll down to item #48, then click on S.AMDT.1112 in that item, you will see the following:
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SA 1112. Mr. UDALL of Colorado submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by him to the bill S. 1867:
At the end of section 1031, add the following:
(f) Extension to United States Citizens and Lawful Resident Aliens.--The authority of the Armed Forces of the United States to detain covered persons under this section extends to citizens of the United States and lawful resident aliens of the United States, except to the extent prohibited by the Constitution of the United States.
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Posse Comitatus isn't mentioned by Sen. Udall at all. The Posse Comitatus Act prevents US military from domestic law enforcement-type activities. According to Wikipedia:
"Contrary to popular belief, the Act does not prohibit members of the Army from exercising nominally state law enforcement, police, or peace officer powers that maintain "law and order"; it simply requires that any orders to do so must originate with the United States Constitution or Act of Congress." (at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posse_Comitatus_Act )

As the author of the articles above states, "Sen. Udall is attempting to provide the act of Congress needed to by-pass the Posse Comitatus Act--and the ACLU wants you to help him do it."

Now the question is, "Why would the ACLU--of all organizations--do something like that??"

There's still time to contact your Senators about all this. They're now being deluged with frantic constituents thinking that Udall's amendments will stop an Executive branch power grab (as they've been told to by their trusted source--the ACLU), but, in fact, just the opposite is the case:
Udall's amendments will ensure that power grab.